Using PHP’s alternate syntaxes

Stanton — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:00:57 +0000

If you’ve ever worked with PHP you’ll be more than familiar with the use of if/elseif/else conditional statements, these statements often become large and unweildy, especially when HTML is mixed in with PHP, causing a problems with code readability. There are a couple of alternate ways to write these statements which can improve your code.

if..endif syntax

We’ll start with a simple example of a ‘regular’ statement which includes a foreach and an if statement which is extremely common among PHP scripts.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

foreach ($array_expression as $value) {
if ($expression1) {
echo 'Result1';
} else {
echo 'Result2';
}
}
?>

Now, just for funzies, let’s make this a tiny bit more complex and mix in some HTML markup in there for good measure, just like you’d see in, say, a WordPress template where we’re jumping back and forth between HTML and PHP mode.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

foreach ($array_expression as $value) {
if ($expression1) {
?>

Result1

} else { ?>

Result2

}
}
?>

See the closing braces on lines 9 & 10? With a relatively small example like this you can scan back through the code to see wether they close the if or the elseif. Now imagine a much larger statement, the only way to find out what the closing brace actually closes is to either pay attention to the tab levels (providing the tab levels have been maintained properly), or to read back through the whole statement and match them up. There is an alternate syntax which makes life a little easier.

Alternate syntax

By using the alternate if..elseif syntax we can replace those closing braces with something a little more useful.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

foreach ($array_expression as $value) :
if ($expression1) :
?>

Result1

else : ?>

Result2

endif;
endforeach;
?>

This alternate syntax is expecially useful when mixing PHP and HTML and works for if/while/for control structures.

Ternary operator

For simple evaluations you can use the ternary operator which is a slimline version of an if/else statement, for example, the following statement which pluralises a string based on an integer variable.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

if ($count == 1) {
$comments = 'comment';
} else {
$comments = 'comments';
}
echo $count . ' ' . $comments;
?>

Alternate syntax

Using the ternary operator this can be condensed to a single line:

1
2
3
4

$comments = ($count == 1) ? 'comment' : 'comments';
echo $count . ' ' . $comments;
?>

Have a try!

By learning and adopting these alternate syntaxes you will ensure that your code remains readable and maintainable, especially if you’re writing code to be used by other people. Give them a try!

Quick and dirty dropdown pagination in CakePHP

Stanton — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:49:46 +0000

I’ve been slowly rebuilding my Moblog application using the CakePHP framework over the past year when I have the time and motivation. Over the past few evenings I’ve been refining a small element of my Moblog site which has started to dramatically increase user interaction with the site and allow old content to bubble back up to the top.

The Cake paginator helper works fine if you’re using basic anchor links to trigger sort options, but I wanted to use a dropdown select element so that the user can choose how to order the moblogs.

So I know this is most likely a horrible solution to the problem and certainly not very ‘cakey’, but it’s quick, dirty, and it works for what I need it to do.

In the view we need a valid form element, even though the javascript hijacks the onChange event and doesn’t actually post the result. At the moment this does mean that this doesn’t work without javascript but I plan on improving this soon by only using $paginator->sort links in the view, and replacing them with the form completely in javascript.

in the view:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

$form->create('Moblog', array(
'action' => 'index',
'controller' => 'moblogs',
'type' => 'get',
'div' => false
)
);
?>

$form->input('order',array(
'label' => 'sort:',
'options' => array(
'modified' => 'recent activity',
'id' => 'date added',
'commented' => 'last commented',
'moblog_comment_count' => 'most commented',
'rand()' => 'random'
),
'selected' => $this->params['order'],
'div' => false
)
);
?>
$form->end('go'); ?>

In the jQuery we take whichever value was selected on change, build the relevant ‘paginator compatible’ url which the helper will use to return the required data on page load and then redirect the browser.

jQuery:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

$('#MoblogOrder').change(function() {
var url = '/moblogs/index';
switch ($('#MoblogOrder option:selected').val()) {
case 'modified':
url += '/page:1/sort:modified/direction:desc/';
break;
case 'id':
url += '/page:1/sort:id/direction:desc/';
break;
case 'commented':
url += '/page:1/sort:commented/direction:desc/';
break;
case 'moblog_comment_count':
url += '/page:1/sort:moblog_comment_count/direction:desc/';
break;
case 'rand()':
url += '/page:1/order:rand()/';
break;
default : url += '/page:1/sort:modified/direction:desc/';
}
window.location = url;
}

In this particular example, I’m using a random order also, which needs to be an ‘order’ param instead of a ‘sort’, so in the controller I’m checking which params are being used, and setting a consistant order variable which is used in the view to maintain the selected state of the select element.

in the index method in the controller

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

If any Cake ninjas are reading this and have any suggestions, or better methods, please do leave a comment!

CoffeePowered » PHP

Using PHP’s alternate syntaxes

if..endif syntax

Alternate syntax

Ternary operator

Alternate syntax

Have a try!

Quick and dirty dropdown pagination in CakePHP